Corrie's grad school application process, in a nutshell

Well folks, finally, D-Day had come and gone... December 1st-- that is, the day that many of my grad school applications were due. It's when I aimed to get everything in, so it's been the day that I've both been eager for, and has been coming a little too soon, for months now. But it's past now, and I'm sooo happy it is!

So, there's not really a "point" to this post, just some details of what the grad school application process has looked like for me. Because sometimes people seem a little confused. Which is ok. It's a terrible, viciously confusing process, which I think is the entire point, so they don't have to look at actually many completed apps and it makes their job easier. I have lots of files and lists and checklists and timelines to help me keep it all straight. For you, the short version:

1. "Why is it taking you so long??"
I feel like I've been working on this process continually for the past year or so (give or take, and of course increasingly so during the past days, weeks and months as grad schools apps are getting due)... and I sort of have. But I realize most people live in a different world (like the one where one of my co-workers came to work one day the other week and rather casually mentioned that she had applied for grad school the evening before). Stay there. It's a nice world. However, this is a beastly process that is a little more complicated (hopefully, some of the below will give you further clues as to why). And I've been doing this all, plus those little details of school and work.

2. "Why are you trying to contact professors??"
So, the way this works is that you have to identify an advisor before the program lets you in. Only one of the programs I'm applying for is not this way. A faculty advisor has to want to work with you, and sponsor/advocate for you, for you to even be admitted to the program. Your advisor is who you do your research under; you are in their "lab." I have been looking into potential advisors literally for years, and contacting them (or in many cases, attempting to contact them, because some of them very un-helpfully fail to ever reply) for months.

3. "Isn't ordering transcripts easy??"
I have attended 4 schools. I am applying to 6. So yeah, when I say it took me more than an entire evening just to order transcripts, I am not exaggerating.

4. "Well, that's still just six applications, right??"
Many of the programs to which I'm applying are actually interdepartmental, so you also need to be admitted to one of the main participating departments, e.g. biology, zoology, etc. So for one school, I don't necessarily have just one set of application materials to get in and keep track of, but might have one app for the general university graduate program, a supplemental for the ecology/evolution program, and still other materials required by the home department.

5. "What is this GRE thing, and didn't you already take it a few years ago??"
The GRE (Graduate Record Exam) is to graduate school as the SAT is to college. (For someone clearly so skilled at analogies, you'd think I've have done better on the verbal section.) It has verbal, quantitative (aka math), and analytical writing sections. I did not take this a few weeks ago-- I took this in July 2007. The scores are good for 5 years, which means if no one lets me in to grad school for this next year, I'm out of luck on that count. What I did take a few Saturdays ago was the GRE Subject Test in Biology-- a 3-hour paper-based test. I won't get to find out my scores until around Christmas time.

6. "When do you find out??"
Good question. The app due dates started December 1st, though a few are a bit later. Regardless, I got all my application materials in by the 1st (or hopefully did-- some programs have assured me it takes a few weeks for them to upload everything to their system, but they'll let me know if anything's missing, e.g. if a transcript, GRE score report, or letter of recommendation got lost in the mix). I will probably not know where I admitted until into the winter or spring. I mean, maybe I'll know some places I'm definitely not admitted, because they won't be having me out for interviews and whatnot. But not for sure, anytime soon. I'll keep you posted on whether I get in any places, but might not even tell you where I've gotten in, until I make the decision of where I'm going.

7. "Um, isn't this going to cost you a lot??"
So, these programs are all about money. They will literally only take on who they can fund. So while I'd initially (like, pretty much this entire time during the past few years) planned to apply to Master's programs to start, I'm ending up applying to all PhD programs (though telling them I'd be happy to start with a Master's, as well). Because no one wants Master's students right now. They all barely want PhD students, for that matter. (Ok, now I'm blending into a point I was going to make elsewhere... I digress. Back we go.) In many cases, having funding already lined up (e.g. through an NSF fellowship-- for which I have also applied, by the way) can massively influence admissions decisions. This is not a secret, they are quite open about that fact. So if someone lets me in as a Master's student and I don't get any other fellowships or whatnot, yes, it will cost me a lot, and I'll get myself nicely in debt. But probably no one's going to let me in as a Master's student, so I'm not going to worry about that too much for now.

8. "Why do you get frustrated when I tell you it's all going to work out awesomely??"
Yeah... so, please don't tell me it is all going to be fine, and I will for sure get in lots of places. You do not, in any way, actually know this. I know a lot more about this process, the realities and logistics it, than probably you do, and I know that that is not necessarily the case. I might get in nowhere. And then I will have to figure out what to do. But just don't speak of things of which you know not, ok? I don't find it helpful, because I know it is based on a lack of true information about the situation. We will see what happens, and I will cross whatever bridges I come to, when I come to them. Make sense?

Feel free to ask me any other questions you may have about this process! (As long as they do not include, "where have you applied?"-- that list gets me out of breath-- "do you have a top choice?" or anything that makes me worry about the outcomes. Process only, please! :)

(p.s. The above questions were not necessarily ones I have actually been asked, in so many words, anyhow. Just topics to introduce.)

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Ok, I decided to entertain myself by giving some clues to first of the questions I requested not to be asked. :) Those truly dedicated can find the answers if they really care to know that much. Here are some logos or images from the programs to which I've applied, in no particular order: